Noise control method and device

ABSTRACT

A noise control method and device are provided that relate to the field of noise control. The noise control method includes: acquiring noise information of an ambient environment; judging whether the noise information satisfies a predetermined condition, and if yes, acquiring a first message from a first device; and judging, according to the first message, whether the noise information is related to the first device, and if yes, sending a second message to the first device, the second message being used to notify the first device to adjust a volume. The noise control method and device in the embodiments of the present application may easily and quickly realize noise control over a specific device, thereby improving user experience.

RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a divisional of, and claims priority to eachof, pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/117,182, filed Aug. 5,2016, and entitled “NOISE CONTROL METHOD AND DEVICE”, which is a U.S.National Stage filing under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of international patentcooperation treaty (PCT) application No. PCT/CN2014/095319, filed Dec.29, 2014, and entitled “NOISE CONTROL METHOD AND DEVICE”, which claimsthe benefit of priority to Chinese Patent Application No.201410085419.1, filed on Mar. 10, 2014. The entireties of theaforementioned applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present application relates to the field of noise controltechnologies, and in particular, to a noise control method and device.

BACKGROUND

Noise pollution is a problem that people often encounter in everydaylife. Generally, sounds that affect people's work, study and rest arecalled noise.

More and more electronic devices, while enriching people's everydaylife, also bring about new noise pollution problems. For example, when auser is having a rest in the bedroom, perhaps other family members arewatching TV in the living room, and at this time, if a sound that the TVset makes is too loud, the sound easily becomes noise, affecting theuser's rest. For another example, when a user is listening to musicthrough an audio system, at this time, the phone rings, and the useranswers the phone and finds that the sound of the audio system is tooloud, affecting the user's normal answering of the phone.

In the foregoing scenarios, the user often manually controls the volumekey of the TV set or the audio system to adjust a volume, and then noiseinterference may be avoided, which has cumbersome steps and poor userexperience.

SUMMARY

An example object of the present application is to provide a noisecontrol method and device.

In a first example aspect, an embodiment of the present applicationprovides a noise control method, and the method includes:

acquiring noise information of an ambient environment;

judging whether the noise information satisfies a predeterminedcondition, and if yes, acquiring a first message from a first device;and

judging, according to the first message, whether the noise informationis related to the first device, and if yes, sending a second message tothe first device, the second message being used to notify the firstdevice to adjust a volume.

In a second example aspect, an embodiment of the present applicationprovides a noise control method, and the method includes:

acquiring, by a device, sound sampling information of a sound the devicemakes;

sending a first message including the sound sampling information;

receiving a second message from the external; and

adjusting a volume based on a volume adjustment policy according to thesecond message and a current volume.

In a third example aspect, an embodiment of the present applicationprovides a noise controlling device, and the controlling deviceincludes:

a first acquisition module, configured to acquire noise information ofan ambient environment;

a first judgment module, configured to judge whether the noiseinformation satisfies a predetermined condition;

a second acquisition module, configured to acquire a first message froma first device if the noise information satisfies the predeterminedcondition;

a second judgment module, configured to judge, according to the firstmessage, whether the noise information is related to the first device;and

a message sending module, configured to send a second message to thefirst device if the noise information is related to the first device,the second message being used to notify the first device to adjust avolume.

In a fourth example aspect, an embodiment of the present applicationprovides a noise controlled device, and the controlled device includes:

an acquisition module, configured to acquire sound sampling informationof a sound the device makes;

a sending module, configured to send a first message including the soundsampling information;

a receiving module, configured to receive a second message from theexternal; and

an adjustment module, configured to adjust a volume based on a volumeadjustment policy according to the second message and a current volume.

Noise control methods and devices in the various embodiments of thepresent application may easily and quickly realize noise control over aspecific device, thereby improving user experience.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an example flowchart of a noise control method according to anembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is an example flowchart of a noise control method in animplementation of an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is an example flowchart of a noise control method according to anembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is an example flowchart of step S380 in an implementation of anembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is an example flowchart of step S381 a in an implementation of anembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is an example flowchart of step S380 in an implementation of anembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is an example flowchart of step S381 b in an implementation of anembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is an example flowchart of step S380 in an implementation of anembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is an example flowchart of step S381 c in an implementation of anembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is an example flowchart of step S380 in an implementation of anembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is an example flowchart of step S380 in an implementation of anembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 12 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of anoise controlling device according to an embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 13 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of afirst acquisition module in an implementation of an embodiment of thepresent application;

FIG. 14 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of afirst acquisition module in an implementation of an embodiment of thepresent application;

FIG. 15 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of anoise controlling device in an implementation of an embodiment of thepresent application;

FIG. 16 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of anoise controlled device according to an embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 17 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of anoise controlled device in an implementation of an embodiment of thepresent application;

FIG. 18 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of anadjustment module in an implementation of an embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 19 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of atarget volume determination sub-module in an implementation of anembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 20 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of asecond unit in an implementation of an embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 21 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of anadjustment module in an implementation of an embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 22 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of atarget volume determination sub-module in an implementation of anembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 23 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of anadjustment module in an implementation of an embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 24 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of atarget volume determination sub-module in an implementation of anembodiment of the present application;

FIG. 25 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of anadjustment module in an implementation of an embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 26 is an example schematic diagram of a modular structure of anadjustment module in an implementation of an embodiment of the presentapplication;

FIG. 27 is an example structural diagram of a noise controlling deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present application; and

FIG. 28 is an example structural diagram of a noise controlled deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present application.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments of the present application are further described indetail hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings andembodiments. The following embodiments are intended to describe thepresent application, but not to limit the scope of the presentapplication.

Those skilled in the art should understand that, in the embodiments ofthe present application, sequence numbers of steps do not mean an orderof execution, and the order of execution of the steps should bedetermined according to functions and internal logic thereof, but shouldnot pose any limitation to the implementation process of theimplementations of the present application.

In addition, the terms such as “first” and “second” in the embodimentsof the present application are merely used to distinguish differentsteps, devices or modules, which neither represent any specifictechnical meaning nor represent a necessary logical order between them.

The term “noise” in the present application refers to sounds that affectpeople's work, study and rest, which has relativity, for example, when auser makes a call, voices, music, whistles and the like around the usermay become noise.

During research, the inventor has found that, before a user enters intoa sound sensitive state, the user may often perform regular operationson a portable electronic device. For example, before going to bed, theuser may adjust the mobile phone to a silent mode. For another example,before answering the phone, the user may press the answer key.Therefore, according to the user's operating habits, the correspondingelectronic device (for example, a mobile phone) may previously know thatthe user will enter into a sound sensitive state, so as to notifysurrounding electronic devices which are making a sound to reduce thevolume in advance, thereby avoiding interference with the user.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a noise control method according to anembodiment of the present application; the method may be executed by,for example, a noise controlling device, as shown in FIG. 1, and themethod includes:

S120: acquiring noise information of an ambient environment;

S140: judging whether the noise information satisfies a predeterminedcondition, and if yes, acquiring a first message from a first device;and

S160: judging, according to the first message, whether the noiseinformation is related to the first device, and if yes, sending a secondmessage to the first device, the second message being used to notify thefirst device to adjust a volume.

According to the noise control method in the embodiment of the presentapplication, noise information is acquired from noise in an ambientenvironment, a first message is acquired from a first device, and in thecase that the noise information is related to the first device, a secondmessage is automatically sent to the first device, so as to notify thefirst device to adjust a volume, thereby easily and quickly realizingnoise control over a specific device, and improving user experience.

Functions of the steps S120, S140 and S160 are described below indetail.

In an example implementation, in the step S120, the noise informationincludes: a noise intensity value. The noise intensity value refers toinformation that may reflect intensity of noise in an ambientenvironment, for example, it may be a noise sound pressure level, anoise signal intensity or the like.

In an example implementation, in the step S140, the satisfying apredetermined condition includes that: the noise intensity value isgreater than a predetermined threshold. The predetermined threshold maybe set by a user, for example, a setting interface is output, and setthe predetermined threshold according to an input value of the user.Alternatively, the predetermined threshold may be automatically setaccording to the user's current sensitivity to noise, for example, whenthe user adjusts a mobile phone to a silent mode, it indicates that theuser may want to sleep next, and the predetermined threshold isautomatically set to 10 dB; when the user presses an answer key of amobile phone, the predetermined threshold is automatically set to 20 dB.

The first device may be one or more devices that may produce noise, forexample, TV sets, audio systems, person computers or other devices. Inthe step S140, the first message may be acquired from the first devicethrough passive receiving, for example, the first device broadcasts thefirst message, and the first message is directly received according tothe method; or the first message may also be acquired from the firstdevice through active requesting, for example, according to the method,a request message is first sent to the first device, and the firstdevice feeds back the first message according to the request message.

The first message may include sound sampling information of the firstdevice. The sound sampling information may be a sound sampling fragmentof the first device, and may also be a sound sampling feature of thefirst device.

In the step S160, the judging, according to the first message, whetherthe noise information is related to the first device may include:

S161: judging whether the sound sampling information matches the noiseinformation, and if yes, judging that the noise information is relatedto the first device.

For the sake of simplicity, the following description about the stepS161 is merely based on the situation where the sound samplinginformation is a sound sampling fragment (when the noise samplinginformation is a sound sampling feature, the following steps a and b maybe omitted during processing on the sound sampling information).

In an example implementation, the step S161 may include:

a) dividing an audio signal to be processed into a plurality of frames;

b) extracting features of audio signals of each frame, the featuresinclude, but are not limited to, Fourier coefficients, Mel-frequencyCepstral Coefficients (MFCCs), spectral flatness, spectral sharpness,Linear Predictive Coding coefficients and the like;

c) compressing the extracted features by using a classificationalgorithm, to form a sub-fingerprint corresponding to each frame;

d) taking the sound sampling information as the audio signal to beprocessed to execute the steps a-c, to obtain a plurality ofsub-fingerprints corresponding to the sound sampling information, theplurality of sub-fingerprints forming a fingerprint block; and takingthe noise information as the audio signal to be processed to execute thesteps a-c, to obtain a plurality of sub-fingerprints corresponding tothe noise information, the plurality of sub-fingerprints forming afingerprint stream; and

e) comparing similarity between different parts of the fingerprint blockand the fingerprint stream, so as to judge whether they match eachother; when the similarity is greater than a predetermined value, it maybe considered that they match each other.

Reference may be made to Jaap Haitsma and Antonius Kalker et al.'s Paper“A Highly Robust Audio Fingerprinting System”, International Symposiumon Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR) 2002, pp. 107-115, for exampleimplementation of the steps a-e. This is not the focus of the presentapplication, and is not repeated herein.

In the example implementation, the noise information may be noiseinformation in a predetermined time period, and in order to improvematching accuracy, the length of the predetermined time period should begreater than a time length threshold, for example, the noise informationmay be a noise record with a time length of 1 minute.

In an example implementation, the first device that receives the secondmessage may reduce its volume upon receipt of the second message, forexample, the device reduces the volume by 10 dB each time.

In an example implementation, the first device may also make out itsvolume adjustment policy flexibly according to actual situations. Inthis case, corresponding information may be transmitted to the firstdevice through the second message, so as to provide a basis for thefirst device to make out a volume adjustment policy.

In an example implementation, the second message may include: the noiseintensity value, the predetermined threshold, and a transmit power valueof the second message.

In an example implementation, the second message may include: the noiseintensity value, the predetermined threshold, and position informationof a sender of the second message.

In an example implementation, the second message may include: the noiseintensity value, the predetermined threshold, noise sampling informationand a corresponding sampling time. The noise sampling information andthe sampling time may be acquired during acquisition of the noiseinformation, that is to say, the noise information acquired from thenoise of the ambient environment includes the noise sampling informationand the sampling time. The noise sampling information may be an originalnoise sampling fragment or a processed noise sampling feature.

How the first device uses information included in the second message toadjust the volume will be described hereinafter, which is not repeatedherein.

The noise information in the present application may be noiseinformation corresponding to all collected sound frequencies. Inaddition, in another example implementation, the noise information mayalso be noise information of some specific sound frequency intervals,that is, noise information of at least one sound frequency interval. Theimplementation is mainly applicable to a situation where the user isrelatively sensitive to noise in a specific sound frequency interval,for example, when the user is thinking, in terms of voices of characterdialogues from a TV set and music from an audio system, the user may bemore sensitive to the voices of dialogues. Therefore, the mobile phoneof the user may acquire noise information of a sound frequency interval(for example, 300 HZ to 3400 HZ) corresponding to the voices ofcharacter dialogues from the noise of the ambient environment accordingto the user's habits, and then tasks in the steps S140 and S160 areexecuted.

Suppose that the noise information is noise information within a soundfrequency interval corresponding to the voices of character dialoguesand the corresponding first message is acquired respectively from the TVset and the audio system in the method, in the step S160, it may bejudged that the noise information is related to the TV set, instead ofbeing related to the audio system, so that a second message may be sentto the TV set according to the method, so as to notify the TV set toreduce the volume. Therefore, the method in the implementation maycontrol a specific electronic device to reduce noise more pertinently.

In addition, in another example implementation, the sound frequencyinterval may be set by the user; as shown in FIG. 2, the method mayfurther include:

S110: setting at least one sound frequency interval according to userinput.

In addition, the embodiments of the present application also provide acomputer readable medium, comprising computer readable instructionswhich perform the following operations when being executed: executingthe operations of steps S120, S140 and S160 of the method in theimplementation shown in FIG. 1.

To sum up, according to the noise control method in the exampleimplementation, judgment may be made according to noise information ofan ambient environment, if adjustment is satisfied, the second messageis sent to other devices, and corresponding information may betransmitted through the second message, so that the other devices makeout a volume adjustment policy according to their own situations,thereby simplifying noise control steps and improving user experience.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a noise control method according to anotherembodiment of the present application; the method may be executed by,for example, a noise controlled device, as shown in FIG. 3, and themethod includes:

S320: acquiring, by the device, sound sampling information of a soundthe device makes;

S340: sending a first message including the sound sampling information;

S360: receiving a second message from an external device; and

S380: adjusting a volume based on a volume adjustment policy accordingto the second message and a current volume.

According to the method in this embodiment, sound sampling informationof a sound the device makes is acquired, a first message including thesound sampling information is sent, a second message sent from anexternal device is received, and a volume is adjusted based on a volumeadjustment policy according to the second message and a current volume,so that the noise controlled device may take the initiative to reportits own sounding condition to the external device and automaticallyadjust the volume according to a request from the external device,thereby reducing noise output, simplifying noise control steps, andimproving user experience.

Functions of the steps S320, S340, S360 and S380 are described below indetail.

In the step S320, the sound sampling information may be collectedthrough a microphone at a sound output side, and may also be acquired byintercepting corresponding audio signals before sound output. The soundsampling information may include: a sound sampling fragment or a soundsampling feature. The sound sampling fragment may be a non-processedsound recording or audio signal data, and the sound sampling feature maybe feature information extracted from the sound sampling fragment, suchas a spectral feature.

In the step S340, the first message including the sound samplinginformation may be sent through broadcasting, and the first messageincluding the sound sampling information may also be sent to a specificdevice through unicasting. In the case of unicasting, a sender of thefirst message should know in advance labeling information of thespecific device, for example, a TV set of the user is notified inadvance about a MAC address of the user's mobile phone, and the TV setmay send the first message to the mobile phone through unicasting.

In the step S360, the external device is an electronic device thatreceives the first message, for example, the TV set in the foregoingexample.

In an example implementation, the second message includes: a noiseintensity value, a predetermined threshold, and a transmit power valueof the second message. Moreover, referring to FIG. 4, the step S380includes:

S381 a: determining a target volume according to the noise intensityvalue, the predetermined threshold, the current volume, the transmitpower value, and a received signal intensity of the second message; and

S382 a: adjusting the volume according to the target volume.

The target volume in the present application is a target value aftervolume adjustment. In the step S382 a, the volume may be directlyadjusted to the target volume.

Specifically, in an example implementation, referring to FIG. 5, thestep S381 a may include:

S3811 a: obtaining a wireless signal attenuation value according to thetransmit power value and the received signal intensity;

S3812 a: obtaining a first sub-noise intensity value in the noiseintensity value according to the wireless signal attenuation value andthe current volume;

S3813 a: obtaining a second sub-noise intensity value according to thenoise intensity value and the first sub-noise intensity value; and

S3814 a: determining the target volume according to the predeterminedthreshold, the first sub-noise intensity value, the second sub-noiseintensity value and the current volume.

In an example implementation, the step S3812 a may include:

S38121 a: determining an intermediate parameter according to thewireless signal attenuation value, where the intermediate parameter maybe a parameter capable of associating the wireless signal attenuationvalue and a sound signal attenuation value, for example, it may be adistance; and

S38122 a: obtaining the first sub-noise intensity value in the noiseintensity value according to the intermediate parameter and the currentvolume.

In the present application, the noise intensity value may include: anoise sound pressure level or a noise signal intensity, which reflectsinformation of intensity of noise at the external device. The firstsub-noise intensity value reflects a contribution value of a soundoutput by a current noise source (that is, a current sounding device)for intensity of noise at the external device; the second sub-noiseintensity value reflects a contribution value of a sound output byanother noise source (that is, another sounding device) for theintensity of the noise at the external device. Correspondingly, when thenoise intensity value is the noise sound pressure level, the firstsub-noise intensity value is a first sub-noise sound pressure level, andthe second sub-noise intensity value is a second sub-noise soundpressure level; when the noise intensity value is the noise signalintensity, the first sub-noise intensity value is a first sub-noisesignal intensity, and the second sub-noise intensity value is a secondsub-noise signal intensity. For the sake of simplicity, the followingdescription is given merely by illustrating the situation where thenoise intensity value is the noise sound pressure level.

Suppose that the transmit power value of the second message is Lt, thereceived signal intensity of the second message is Lr, the currentvolume is Lc, the noise sound pressure level at the external device isLp₀, and the predetermined threshold is Lp.

The wireless signal attenuation value Ld₁ may be obtained according tothe step S3411 a:

Ld ₁ =Lt−Lr.

For the sake of simplicity, it is considered that attenuation of awireless signal is merely related to a propagation distance of thesignal, and suppose that the propagation distance of the signal and anattenuation value of the wireless signal have a first functionrelationship therebetween, a distance D between the device and theexternal device may be obtained according to the step S34121 a:

D ₁ =f ₁(Ld ₁);

where f₁ denotes the first function relationship.

For the sake of simplicity, it is considered that attenuation of a soundis merely related to a propagation distance of the sound, and supposethat an attenuation value of the sound and the propagation distancethereof have a second function relationship therebetween, an attenuationvalue Ld₂ of the sound after passing through the distance may beobtained according to the step S34122 a:

Ld ₂ =f ₂(D);

where f₂ denotes the second function relationship.

Further, according to the current volume, the first sub-noise soundpressure level Lp₁ at the external device may be obtained:

Lp ₁ =Lc−Ld _(2;)

in the step S3413 a, suppose that the second sub-noise sound pressurelevel is Lp₂, there is a formula according to sound intensitysuperposition:

${{Lp}_{0} = {10 \times {\lg\left( {10^{\frac{{Lp}_{1}}{10}} + 10^{\frac{{Lp}_{2}}{10}}} \right)}}};$

Lp₂ may be obtained through calculation according to the formula.

In the step S3414 a, first suppose that other noise sources may notadjust the volume and also suppose that the first sub-noise soundpressure level after volume adjustment is Lp₁′, according to thepredetermined threshold Lp and the second sub-noise sound pressure levelLp₂, there is a formula according to sound intensity superposition:

${{Lp} = {10 \times {\lg\left( {10^{\frac{{Lp}_{1}^{\prime}}{10}} + 10^{\frac{{Lp}_{2}}{10}}} \right)}}};$

Lp₁′ may be obtained through calculation according to the formula.

Further, the target volume La may be obtained according to the currentvolume Lc and the first sub-noise sound pressure levels Lp₁ and Lp₁′before and after volume adjustment:

La=Lc−(Lp ₁ −Lp ₁′).

Those skilled in the art should understand that, in the step S3814 a, indetermination of the target volume, it may also be assumed that theother noise sources may adjust the volume, for example, it may beassumed that the second sub-noise sound pressure level after adjustmentof the other noise sources is Lp₂′=Lp₂×50%.

In an example implementation, the second message includes: a noiseintensity value, a predetermined threshold, and position information.The position information is position information of the external device.Moreover, referring to FIG. 6, the step S380 includes:

S381 b: determining a target volume according to the noise intensityvalue, the predetermined threshold, the current volume and the positioninformation; and

S382 b: adjusting the volume according to the target volume.

Specifically, referring to FIG. 7, in an example implementation, thestep S381 b may include:

S3811 b: determining a distance according to the position information;

S3812 b: obtaining the first sub-noise intensity value in the noiseintensity value according to the distance and the current volume;

S3813 b: obtaining a second sub-noise intensity value according to thenoise intensity value and the first sub-noise intensity value; and

S3814 b: determining the target volume according to the predeterminedthreshold, the first sub-noise intensity value, the second sub-noiseintensity value and the current volume.

In the step S3811 b, the distance is a distance from a current soundingsource to the external device. The current sounding source may acquireits own position information through indoor positioning or othertechnologies, and a distance between it and the external device may beobtained in combination with position information of the externaldevice.

The example implementation process of the steps S3812 b-S3814 b issimilar to that of the steps S3812 a, S3813 a and S3814 a in theprevious implementation, which is not repeated herein.

In an example implementation, the second message includes: a noiseintensity value, a predetermined threshold, noise sampling informationand a corresponding sampling time. Moreover, referring to FIG. 8, thestep S380 includes:

S381 c: determining a target volume according to the noise intensityvalue, the predetermined threshold, the current volume, the noisesampling information and the sampling time; and

S382 c: adjusting the volume according to the target volume.

Specifically, in an example implementation, referring to FIG. 9, thestep S381 c may include:

S3811 c: matching the noise sampling information with a sound outputrecord of the device, to determine a sounding time of the noise samplinginformation;

S3812 c: determining a distance according to a time difference betweenthe sampling time and the sounding time;

S3813 c: obtaining the first sub-noise intensity value in the noiseintensity value according to the distance and the current volume;

S3814 c: obtaining a second sub-noise intensity value according to thenoise intensity value and the first sub-noise intensity value; and

S3815 c: determining the target volume according to the predeterminedthreshold, the first sub-noise intensity value, the second sub-noiseintensity value and the current volume.

In the step S3811 c, the noise sampling information may be a recordingof ambient noise, that is, a noise sampling fragment, and may also be anoise sampling feature (such as a spectral feature) obtained throughextraction after processing on the noise sampling fragment. For the sakeof simplicity, the following description about the step S3811 c ismerely based on the situation where the noise sampling information is anoise sampling fragment (when the noise sampling information is a noisesampling feature, the following steps a and b may be omitted duringprocessing on the noise sampling information).

In an example implementation, the step S3811 c may include:

a) dividing an audio signal to be processed into a plurality of frames;

b) extracting features of audio signals of each frame, the featuresinclude, but are not limited to, Fourier coefficients, Mel-frequencyCepstral Coefficients (MFCCs), spectral flatness, spectral sharpness,Linear Predictive Coding coefficients and the like;

c) compressing the extracted features by using a classificationalgorithm, to form a sub-fingerprint corresponding to each frame;

d) taking the noise sampling information as the audio signal to beprocessed to execute the steps a-c, to obtain a plurality ofsub-fingerprints corresponding to the noise sampling information, theplurality of sub-fingerprints forming a fingerprint block; and takingsound output of the device as the audio signal to be processed toexecute the steps a-c, to obtain a plurality of sub-fingerprintscorresponding to the sound output, the plurality of sub-fingerprintsforming a fingerprint stream; and

e) comparing similarity between different parts of the fingerprint blockand the fingerprint stream, so as to judge whether they match eachother; when the similarity is greater than a predetermined value, it maybe considered that they match each other, and a sounding time of thenoise sampling information may be obtained in the case that they matcheach other.

Reference may be made to Jaap Haitsma and Antonius Kalker et al.'s Paper“A Highly Robust Audio Fingerprinting System”, International Symposiumon Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR) 2002, pp. 107-115, for exampleimplementation of the steps a-e. This is not the focus of the presentapplication, and is not repeated herein.

In the step S3812 c, a time difference may be obtained according to thesampling time and the sounding time, and then a distance between thedevice and the external device may be obtained in combination with apropagation speed of the sound in the air.

The example implementation process of the steps S3813 c-S3815 c issimilar to that of the steps S3812 b-S3814 b in the previous exampleimplementation, which is not repeated herein.

Referring to FIG. 10, in an example implementation, the step S380includes:

S381 d: determining a step length according to the second message andthe current volume; and

S382 d: adjusting the volume according to the step length.

In order to better realize the method in the example implementation, themethod in the implementation may be executed cyclically, that is, eachtime the second message is received, the step S380 is executed once,until the second message is no longer received. The step length may be afixed value, and may also be a non-fixed value. The step length may beset with reference to the current volume, for example, when the currentvolume is great, a large step length is set, and when the current volumeis small, a small step length is set.

For example, when the second message is received for the first time, thecurrent volume is 80 dB, the step length is determined to be −20 dB, andthe adjusted volume is 60 dB; when the second message is received forthe second time, the current volume is 60 dB, the step length isdetermined to be −8 dB, and the adjusted volume is 52 dB; when thesecond message is received for the third time, the current volume is 52dB, the step length is determined to be −5 dB, and the adjusted volumeis 47 dB.

Referring to FIG. 11, in an example implementation, the step S380includes:

S381 e: determining a volume interval according to the second messageand the current volume; and

S382 e: controlling the volume to be within the volume interval.

In the example implementation, reference may be made to a predeterminedproportion of the current volume for determination of the volumeinterval, for example, an upper limit of the volume interval may be setto 50% of the current volume, a lower limit is set to 0, and supposethat the current volume is 80 dB, the volume interval determined in thestep S341 e is [40, 0].

According to the method in the example implementation, merely outputvolume of an audio signal beyond a volume interval may be adjusted, soas to avoid the situation where the output volume of a part with asmaller volume value in the audio signal is 0 after adjustment to resultin that other users cannot hear totally.

In addition, the embodiments of the present application also provide acomputer readable medium, comprising computer readable instructionswhich perform the following operations when being executed: executingthe operations of steps S320, S340, S360 and S380 of the method in theexample implementation shown in FIG. 3.

To sum up, according to the noise control method in this embodiment,sound sampling information of the device may be actively reported to theexternal device, a second message of the external device is received,target volume, a step length or a volume interval may be determinedaccording to related information in the second message and the currentvolume of the device, and then corresponding volume adjustment may beperformed, so as to easily, quickly and more pertinently realize controlover ambient noise, thereby improving user experience.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of a modular structure of a noisecontrolling device according to an embodiment of the presentapplication. The noise controlling device may generally be a devicecarried by a user, for example, a smart phone, a smart watch, smartglasses, a smart ring or other devices. The devices are carried by theuser, noise information acquired by the devices is closer to noise thatthe user feels with ears.

As shown in FIG. 12, the controlling device 1200 includes:

a first acquisition module 1210, configured to acquire noise informationof an ambient environment;

a first judgment module 1220, configured to judge whether the noiseinformation satisfies a predetermined condition;

a second acquisition module 1230, configured to acquire a first messagefrom a first device if the noise information satisfies the predeterminedcondition;

a second judgment module 1240, configured to judge, according to thefirst message, whether the noise information is related to the firstdevice; and

a message sending module 1250, configured to send a second message tothe first device if the noise information is related to the firstdevice, the second message being used to notify the first device toadjust a volume.

In an example implementation, the noise information includes: a noiseintensity value. The noise intensity value refers to information thatmay reflect intensity of noise in an ambient environment, for example,it may be a noise sound pressure level, a noise signal intensity or thelike. Referring to FIG. 13, in this example implementation, the firstacquisition module 1210 includes:

a first acquisition unit 1211, configured to acquire a noise intensityvalue of the ambient environment.

In an example implementation, the satisfying a predetermined conditionincludes that: the noise intensity value is greater than a predeterminedthreshold.

In an example implementation, the second message may include: the noiseintensity value, the predetermined threshold, and a transmit power valueof the second message.

In an example implementation, the second message may include: the noiseintensity value, the predetermined threshold, and position informationof a sender of the second message.

In an example implementation, the second message may include: the noiseintensity value, the predetermined threshold, noise sampling informationand a corresponding sampling time. The noise sampling information andthe sampling time may be acquired during acquisition of the noiseinformation, that is to say, the noise information acquired from thenoise of the ambient environment includes the noise sampling informationand the sampling time. Referring to FIG. 14, in the exampleimplementation, the first acquisition module 1210 may further include:

a second acquisition unit 1212, configured to acquire noise samplinginformation and a corresponding sampling time from noise of the ambientenvironment.

The noise information in the present application may be noiseinformation corresponding to all collected sound frequencies. Inaddition, in another example implementation, the noise information mayalso be noise information of some specific sound frequency intervals,that is, noise information of at least one sound frequency interval.Referring to FIG. 15, in the example implementation, the controllingdevice 1200 may further include:

a setting module 1260, configured to set at least one sound frequencyinterval according to user input, the noise information being noiseinformation of at least one sound frequency interval.

FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram of a modular structure of a noisecontrolled device according to an embodiment of the present application;the noise controlled device may be, for example, a TV set, an audiodevice, a game console, a personal computer, a mobile phone and otherdevices that may make a loud sound.

Referring to FIG. 16, the controlled device 1600 may include:

an acquisition module 1610, configured to acquire sound samplinginformation of a sound the device makes;

a sending module 1620, configured to send a first message including thesound sampling information;

a receiving module 1630, configured to receive a second message from anexternal device; and

an adjustment module 1640, configured to adjust a volume based on avolume adjustment policy according to the second message and a currentvolume.

Referring to FIG. 17, in an example implementation, the controlleddevice 1600 further includes:

a message processing module 1650, configured to extract a noiseintensity value and a predetermined threshold from the second message.

In an example implementation, the message processing module 1650 isfurther configured to extract a transmit power value of the secondmessage from the second message.

Referring to FIG. 18, in the example implementation, the adjustmentmodule 1640 may include:

a target volume determination sub-module 1641 a, configured to determinea target volume according to the noise intensity value, thepredetermined threshold, the current volume, the transmit power valueand a received signal intensity of the second message; and;

an adjustment sub-module 1642 a, configured to adjust the volumeaccording to the target volume.

Referring to FIG. 19, the target volume determination sub-module 1641 amay include:

a first unit 16411 a, configured to obtain a wireless signal attenuationvalue according to the transmit power value and the received signalintensity;

a second unit 16412 a, configured to obtain a first sub-noise intensityvalue in the noise intensity value according to the wireless signalattenuation value and the current volume;

a third unit 16413 a, configured to obtain a second sub-noise intensityvalue according to the noise intensity value and the first sub-noiseintensity value; and

a fourth unit 16414 a, configured to determine the target volumeaccording to the predetermined threshold, the first sub-noise intensityvalue, the second sub-noise intensity value and the current volume.

Referring to FIG. 20, the second unit 16412 a may include:

an intermediate parameter determination sub-unit 164121 a, configured todetermine an intermediate parameter according to the wireless signalattenuation value; and

a first sub-noise intensity value sub-unit 164122 a, configured toobtain the first sub-noise intensity value according to the intermediateparameter and the current volume.

In an example implementation, the message processing module 1650 isfurther configured to extract position information of the externaldevice from the second message.

Referring to FIG. 21, in the example implementation, the adjustmentmodule 1640 may include:

a target volume determination sub-module 1641 b, configured to determinea target volume according to the noise intensity value, thepredetermined threshold, the current volume and the positioninformation; and

an adjustment sub-module 1642 b, configured to adjust the volumeaccording to the target volume.

Referring to FIG. 22, the target volume determination sub-module 1641 bmay include:

a first unit 16411 b, configured to determine a distance according tothe position information;

a second unit 16412 b, configured to obtain a first sub-noise intensityvalue in the noise intensity value according to the distance and thecurrent volume;

a third unit 16413 b, configured to obtain a second sub-noise intensityvalue according to the noise intensity value and the first sub-noiseintensity value; and

a fourth unit 16414 b, configured to determine the target volumeaccording to the predetermined threshold, the first sub-noise intensityvalue, the second sub-noise intensity value and the current volume.

In an example implementation, the message processing module 1650 isfurther configured to extract noise sampling information and acorresponding sampling time from the second message.

Referring to FIG. 23, in the example implementation, the adjustmentmodule 1640 includes:

a target volume determination sub-module 1641 c, configured to determinea target volume according to the noise intensity value, thepredetermined threshold, the current volume, the noise samplinginformation and the sampling time; and

an adjustment sub-module 1642 c, configured to adjust the volumeaccording to the target volume.

Referring to FIG. 24, the target volume determination sub-module 1641 cincludes:

a first unit 16411 c, configured to match the noise sampling informationwith own sound output record, to determine a sounding time of the noisesampling information;

a second unit 16412 c, configured to determine a distance between thenoise controlled device and the first device according to a timedifference between the sampling time and the sounding time;

a third unit 16413 c, configured to obtain a first sub-noise intensityvalue at the first device according to the distance and the currentvolume;

a fourth unit 16414 c, configured to obtain a second sub-noise intensityvalue according to the noise intensity value and the first sub-noiseintensity value; and

a fifth unit 16415 c, configured to determine the target volumeaccording to the predetermined threshold, the first sub-noise intensityvalue, the second sub-noise intensity value and the current volume.

Referring to FIG. 25, in an example implementation, the adjustmentmodule 1640 includes:

a step length determination sub-module 1641 d, configured to determine astep length according to the second message and a current volume of thedevice; and

an adjustment sub-module 1642 d, configured to adjust the volumeaccording to the step length.

Referring to FIG. 26, in an example implementation, the adjustmentmodule 1640 includes:

a volume interval determination sub-module 1641 e, configured todetermine a volume interval according to the second message and acurrent volume of the device; and

an adjustment sub-module 1642 e, configured to control the volume to bewithin the volume interval.

The structure of a noise controlling device according to one embodimentof the present application is shown in FIG. 27. The specific embodimentof the present application does not limit specific implementation of thenoise controlling device; referring to FIG. 27, the noise controllingdevice 2700 may include:

a processor 2710, a communications interface 2720, a memory 2730, and acommunications bus 2740.

The processor 2710, the communications interface 2720, and the memory2730 complete mutual communications via the communications bus 2740.

The communications interface 2620 is configured to communicate withanother network element.

The processor 2710 is configured to execute a program 2732, and mayspecifically implement relevant steps in the process embodiments shownin FIG. 1 to FIG. 12.

Specifically, the program 2732 may include a program code, the programcode including a computer operation instruction.

The processor 2710 may be a central processing unit (CPU), or anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or be configured to beone or more integrated circuits which implement the embodiments of thepresent application.

The memory 2730 is configured to store the program 2732. The memory 2730may include a high-speed RAM memory, and may also include a non-volatilememory, for example, at least one magnetic disk memory. The program 2732may specifically execute the following steps:

acquiring noise information of an ambient environment;

judging whether the noise information satisfies a predeterminedcondition, and if yes, acquiring a first message from a first device;and

judging, according to the first message, whether the noise informationis related to the first device, and if yes, sending a second message tothe first device, the second message being used to notify the firstdevice to adjust a volume.

Reference may be made to the corresponding steps or modules in theforegoing embodiments for specific realization of each step in theprogram 2732, which is not repeated herein. Those skilled in the art mayclearly understand that, reference may be made to the correspondingdescription in the foregoing process embodiments for the particularworking procedures of the devices and modules described above, and willnot be repeated herein in order to make the description convenient andconcise.

The structure of a noise controlled device according to one embodimentof the present application is as shown in FIG. 28. The specificembodiment of the present application does not limit specificimplementation of the noise controlled device; referring to FIG. 28, thenoise controlled device 2800 may include:

a processor 2810, a communications interface 2820, a memory 2830, and acommunications bus 2840.

The processor 2810, the communications interface 2820, and the memory2830 complete mutual communications via the communications bus 2840.

The communications interface 2820 is configured to communicate withanother network element.

The processor 2810 is configured to execute a program 2832, and mayspecifically implement relevant steps in the process embodiment shown inFIG. 9.

Specifically, the program 2832 may include a program code, the programcode including a computer operation instruction.

The processor 2810 may be a central processing unit (CPU), or anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or be configured to beone or more integrated circuits which implement the embodiments of thepresent application.

The memory 2830 is configured to store the program 2832. The memory 2830may include a high-speed RAM memory, and may also include a non-volatilememory, for example, at least one magnetic disk memory. The program 2832may specifically execute the following steps: acquiring, by the devicesound sampling information of a sound the device makes;

sending a first message including the sound sampling information;

receiving a second message from an external device; and

adjusting a volume based on a volume adjustment policy according to thesecond message and a current volume.

Reference may be made to the corresponding steps or modules in theforegoing embodiments for specific realization of each step in theprogram 2832, which is not repeated herein. Those skilled in the art mayclearly understand that, reference may be made to the correspondingdescription in the foregoing process embodiments for the particularworking procedures of the devices and modules described above, and willnot be repeated herein in order to make the description convenient andconcise.

It may be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that eachexemplary unit and method step described with reference to theembodiments disclosed herein may be implemented by electronic hardwareor a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whetherthese functions are executed in a hardware mode or a software modedepends on particular applications and design constraint conditions ofthe technical solution. The professional technicians may use differentmethods to implement the functions described with respect to eachparticular application, but such implementation should not be consideredto go beyond the scope of the present application.

If the functions are implemented in the form of a software functionalunit and is sold or used as an independent product, it may be stored ina computer-readable storage medium. Based on such understanding, thetechnical solution of the present application essentially or the partwhich contributes to the prior art or a part of the technical solutionmay be embodied in the form of a software product, and the computersoftware product is stored in a storage medium, and includes severalinstructions for enabling a computer device (which may be a personalcomputer, a controller, a network device, or the like) to execute all orsome steps of the method described in each embodiment of the presentapplication. The foregoing storage medium includes various media whichmay store a program code, such as a USB disk, a mobile hard disk, aread-merely memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk,an optical disc, or the like.

The above embodiments are merely used to describe the presentapplication, instead of limiting the present application; variousalterations and variants may be made by those of ordinary skill in theart without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentapplication, so all equivalent technical solutions also belong to thescope of the present application, and the scope of patent protection ofthe present application should be defined by claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: acquiring, by a devicecomprising a processor, sound sampling information of a sound the devicegenerates; sending a first message comprising the sound samplinginformation; receiving a second message from an external device; andadjusting a volume based on a volume adjustment policy according to thesecond message and a current volume.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein the second message comprises: a noise intensity value and apredetermined threshold.
 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein thesecond message further comprises: a transmit power value of the secondmessage.
 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the adjusting thevolume comprises: determining a target volume according to the noiseintensity value, the predetermined threshold, the current volume, thetransmit power value, and a received signal intensity of the secondmessage; and adjusting the volume according to the target volume.
 5. Themethod according to claim 4, wherein the determining the target volumecomprises: obtaining a wireless signal attenuation value according tothe transmit power value and the received signal intensity; obtaining afirst sub-noise intensity value in the noise intensity value accordingto the wireless signal attenuation value and the current volume;obtaining a second sub-noise intensity value according to the noiseintensity value and the first sub-noise intensity value; and determiningthe target volume according to the predetermined threshold, the firstsub-noise intensity value, the second sub-noise intensity value and thecurrent volume.
 6. The method according to claim 2, wherein the secondmessage further comprises: noise sampling information and acorresponding sampling time.
 7. The method according to claim 6, whereinthe adjusting the volume comprises: determining a target volumeaccording to the noise intensity value, the predetermined threshold, thecurrent volume, the noise sampling information and the correspondingsampling time; and adjusting the volume according to the target volume.8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the determining the targetvolume comprises: matching the noise sampling information with a soundoutput record of the device, to determine a sounding time of the noisesampling information; determining a distance according to a timedifference between the sampling time and the sounding time; obtaining afirst sub-noise intensity value in the noise intensity value accordingto the distance and the current volume; obtaining a second sub-noiseintensity value according to the noise intensity value and the firstsub-noise intensity value; and determining the target volume accordingto the predetermined threshold, the first sub-noise intensity value, thesecond sub-noise intensity value and the current volume.
 9. The methodaccording to claim 6, wherein the noise sampling information comprises:a noise sampling fragment or a noise sampling feature.
 10. The methodaccording to claim 2, wherein the second message further comprises:position information.
 11. The method according to claim 10, wherein theadjusting the volume comprises: determining a target volume according tothe noise intensity value, the predetermined threshold, the currentvolume and the position information; and adjusting the volume accordingto the target volume.
 12. The method according to claim 11, wherein thedetermining the target volume according to the noise intensity value,the predetermined threshold, the current volume and the positioninformation comprises: determining a distance according to the positioninformation; obtaining a first sub-noise intensity value in the noiseintensity value according to the distance and the current volume;obtaining a second sub-noise intensity value according to the noiseintensity value and the first sub-noise intensity value; and determiningthe target volume according to the predetermined threshold, the firstsub-noise intensity value, the second sub-noise intensity value and thecurrent volume.
 13. The method according to claim 2, wherein the noiseintensity value comprises: a noise sound pressure level or a noisesignal intensity.
 14. The method according to claim 1, wherein theadjusting the volume comprises: determining a step length according tothe second message and the current volume; and adjusting the volumeaccording to the step length.
 15. The method according to claim 1,wherein the adjusting the volume comprises: determining a volumeinterval according to the second message and the current volume; andcontrolling the volume to be within the volume interval.
 16. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the sending the first message comprisingthe sound sampling information comprises: broadcasting the first messagecomprising the sound sampling information.
 17. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the noise sampling information comprises: a soundingsampling fragment or a sound sampling feature.
 18. A device, comprising:a processor, coupled to a memory, that executes or facilitates executionof executable modules, the executable modules comprising: an acquisitionmodule configured to acquire sound sampling information of a sound thedevice makes; a sending module configured to send a first messagecomprising the sound sampling information; a receiving module configuredto receive a second message from an external device; and an adjustmentmodule configured to adjust a volume based on a volume adjustment policyaccording to the second message and a current volume.
 19. The deviceaccording to claim 18, wherein the executable modules further comprise:a message processing module configured to extract a noise intensityvalue and a predetermined threshold from the second message.
 20. Thedevice according to claim 19, wherein the message processing module isfurther configured to extract a transmit power value of the secondmessage from the second message.
 21. The device according to claim 20,wherein the adjustment module comprises: a target volume determinationsub-module configured to determine a target volume according to thenoise intensity value, the predetermined threshold, the current volume,the transmit power value and a received signal intensity of the secondmessage; and an adjustment sub-module configured to adjust the volumeaccording to the target volume.
 22. The device according to claim 21,wherein the target volume determination sub-module comprises: a firstunit configured to obtain a wireless signal attenuation value accordingto the transmit power value and the received signal intensity; a secondunit configured to obtain a first sub-noise intensity value in the noiseintensity value according to the wireless signal attenuation value andthe current volume; a third unit configured to obtain a second sub-noiseintensity value according to the noise intensity value and the firstsub-noise intensity value; and a fourth unit configured to determine thetarget volume according to the predetermined threshold, the firstsub-noise intensity value, the second sub-noise intensity value and thecurrent volume.
 23. The device according to claim 19, wherein themessage processing module is further configured to extract noisesampling information and a corresponding sampling time from the secondmessage.
 24. The device according to claim 23, wherein the adjustmentmodule comprises: a target volume determination sub-module configured todetermine a target volume according to the noise intensity value, thepredetermined threshold, the current volume, the noise samplinginformation and the corresponding sampling time; and an adjustmentsub-module configured to adjust the volume according to the targetvolume.
 25. The device according to claim 24, wherein the target volumedetermination sub-module comprises: a first unit configured to match thenoise sampling information with a sound output record of the device, todetermine a sounding time of the noise sampling information; a secondunit configured to determine a distance according to a time differencebetween the sampling time and the sounding time; a third unit configuredto obtain a first sub-noise intensity value in the noise intensity valueaccording to the distance and the current volume; a fourth unitconfigured to obtain a second sub-noise intensity value according to thenoise intensity value and the first sub-noise intensity value; and afifth unit configured to determine the target volume according to thepredetermined threshold, the first sub-noise intensity value, the secondsub-noise intensity value and the current volume.
 26. The deviceaccording to claim 19, wherein the message processing module is furtherconfigured to extract position information from the second message. 27.The device according to claim 26, wherein the adjustment modulecomprises: a target volume determination sub-module configured todetermine a target volume according to the noise intensity value, thepredetermined threshold, the current volume and the positioninformation; and an adjustment sub-module configured to adjust thevolume according to the target volume.
 28. The device according to claim27, wherein the target volume determination sub-module comprises: afirst unit configured to determine a distance according to the positioninformation; a second unit configured to obtain a first sub-noiseintensity value in the noise intensity value according to the distanceand the current volume; a third unit configured to obtain a secondsub-noise intensity value according to the noise intensity value and thefirst sub-noise intensity value; and a fourth unit configured todetermine the target volume according to the predetermined threshold,the first sub-noise intensity value, the second sub-noise intensityvalue and the current volume.
 29. The device according to claim 18,wherein the adjustment module comprises: a step length determinationsub-module configured to determine a step length according to the secondmessage and the current volume; and an adjustment sub-module configuredto adjust the volume according to the step length.
 30. The deviceaccording to claim 18, wherein the adjustment module comprises: a volumeinterval determination sub-module configured to determine a volumeinterval according to the second message and the current volume; and anadjustment sub-module configured to control the volume to be within thevolume interval.
 31. A computer readable storage device, comprising atleast one executable instruction, which, in response to execution,causes a noise controlled device comprising a processor to performoperations, comprising: acquiring, by the device, sound samplinginformation of a sound the device makes; sending a first messagecomprising the sound sampling information; receiving a second messagefrom an external device; and adjusting a volume based on a volumeadjustment policy according to the second message and a current volume.32. A noise controlled device for wireless communications, characterizedby comprising a processor and a memory, the memory storing computerexecutable instructions, the processor being connected to the memorythrough a communication bus, and when the noise controlled deviceoperates, the processor executes the computer executable instructionsstored in the memory, so that the noise controlled device performsoperations, comprising: acquiring, by the noise controlled device, soundsampling information of a sound the device makes; sending a firstmessage comprising the sound sampling information; receiving a secondmessage from an external device; and adjusting a volume based on avolume adjustment policy according to the second message and a currentvolume.